


take my hand (take my whole life too)

by cl410



Series: Legacy [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Teen Wolf (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Djinni & Genies, Idiots in Love, It's brief and not detailed, Legacy Verse, Light Angst, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Mentioned Kate Argent, Mutual Pining, Past Kate Argent/Derek Hale, Spark Stiles Stilinski, sterek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-11
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-06-26 01:59:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15653433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cl410/pseuds/cl410
Summary: They’d danced around it for years. The feelings, the half-sure knowledge that they were reciprocated, the always-lingering fear that they weren’t. Heated conversations when Stiles was only a teenager, lingering looks when Derek came home from college, hesitant touches, as if Derek didn’t think he deserved what Stiles was all too willing to offer.Years later and Stiles still didn’t understand what went on in Derek’s head.





	take my hand (take my whole life too)

**Author's Note:**

> The working title of this fic was “What Happens in Maine Stays in Maine”

Stiles didn’t trust people as a general rule. He was naturally suspicious, always expecting hidden motives, always waiting for the knife in the dark. Scott could call him paranoid all he’d like. Expecting the worst meant he was rarely surprised, and usually right. 

This did not mean, though, that Stiles wasn’t also a dumbass sometimes. Dragging Scott out into the woods to search for a body? Not only was it stupid, it was a dick move, he’d be the first to admit in hindsight. 

And then an Alpha werewolf bit Scott. Stiles’s best friend nearly mauled to death by a monster, and it was entirely his fault. That one kept him up at night. 

Yet somehow, the strangest part of the entire ordeal was the fact that Stiles honestly believed that Derek Hale was not the type of person to let others suffer, to let them die, when he had the power to help. Stiles, who had no faith in the good in the world- much less in people- went to the Hales for help. Because he believed they would. Because he believed Derek would. 

And they did. And then Stiles’s life changed forever. 

~*~ 

They’d danced around it for years. The feelings, the half-sure knowledge that they were reciprocated, the always-lingering fear that they weren’t. Heated conversations when Stiles was only a teenager, lingering looks when Derek came home from college, hesitant touches, as if Derek didn’t think he deserved what Stiles was all too willing to offer. 

Years later and Stiles still didn’t understand what went on in Derek’s head. Maybe he never would, he thought bitterly. Stiles glared half-heartedly out the window of the Camaro as Derek drove them down the coast.

He should probably be reviewing his notes on djinn, since that was what they were on their way to hunt in a little, no-name town in Maine. Erica had forwarded the request for help along, sent by an anonymous supernatural citizen who’d just lost a loved one to the monster. 

Bodies found drained of all life, hanging from the ceiling by their bound hands. Djinn, Stiles already knew, needed only one touch to get inside your head. One touch and you were lost to whatever images they planted in your head, all while they drained the life from your body, bit by bit. 

“You have the address?” Derek asked as they neared the town. 

Stiles wordlessly handed the werewolf the paper with the location where the most recent victim had been found. Derek ignored it. Stiles resisted the temptation to throw it at him. 

“Where is it?” 

Stiles gave in after a long period of silence. No use holding Derek responsible for Stiles’s own feelings. 

“Take a left at the next light.” He’d spent the previous night studying maps of the town, learning the streets and layout. The only apparent pattern of the djinn’s feeding ground was somewhere relatively remote, like the basement of the old bank in town. 

“I think people found the bodies mostly by accident,” Stiles said as they passed the “Welcome” sign to the town. “Doesn’t make sense for the djinn to let them be found.” 

“Ruins their safe place to feed,” Derek agreed. “They’d have to relocate, find somewhere else to take their victims.” 

“Is that a warehouse?” Stiles demanded as Derek drove through the outskirts of town. “Tell me that’s not an abandoned warehouse.” 

“It’s an abandoned warehouse,” Derek said sighed. 

“Great. Just great.” Stiles threw up his hands. “Why is it always the abandoned warehouses?!” 

Derek huffed a laugh and kept driving, turning off at the town’s only hotel. Stiles let Derek handle the check in and leaned against the camaro, busy scanning the street outside. Sleepy town, quiet people, Stiles mused. Everyone eyeing the newcomers with suspicion. 

Derek appeared at his side and handed him a room key. “I’ll go park.” 

Stiles grabbed his bags and wandered down the hall to room 106. “C’mon,” he told Derek when the ‘wolf stepped through the door minutes later. Derek tossed his stuff on the second queen bed, closest to the door, and moved Stiles’s bags to the other bed. Stiles rolled his eyes but allowed it. “Let’s go get something to eat.” 

“You just ate two burgers and more curly fries than should be humanly possible,” Derek said. 

“So?” Stiles swiped Derek’s wallet off of the nightstand and darted to the door. “I want dinner. You’re buying, whether you come with me or not.” 

Derek growled at him but followed Stiles back down the hall and out the front doors. “Suspicious bunch,” Stiles said when the receptionist didn’t return his wave. 

“Nobody’s going to tell us a damn thing,” Derek grumbled, bumping unconsciously against Stiles’s side. 

“Cheer up, Sourwolf,” Stiles said, grinning when Derek rumbled dangerously. “We just gotta reassure them we’re not some crazy, trigger-happy hunters.” 

“And how are we supposed to do that?” 

“We have to go undercover.” Stiles rubbed his hands together gleefully. Derek eyed him dubiously as they stopped in front of what seemed to be one of three restaurants in the town.  

As they were seated, Stiles subtly took stock of the room. He made note of which patrons reacted to their presence, who looked unhappy and who seemed merely curious. 

“What brings you boys to town?” The waitress asked brusquely, setting their waters down. 

Derek opened his mouth to answer, but Stiles beat him to it. “We just got engaged,” he said brightly, reaching across the table to tangle his fingers in Derek’s. Derek choked on his water. Stiles absently passed him a napkin. “Just traveling down the coast!” 

The waitress immediately lost her thinly veiled distrust. “Oh, congratulations!” She pressed a hand to her chest and beamed at them. “My brother just married his boyfriend of five years. Have you set a date yet?” 

Derek stared at the table, ears hot. Stiles kicked him under the table and smiled at the waitress. “Not yet, but I’m thinking a fall wedding, y’know? Anyway, we were just passing through, but it’s a beautiful town. We might stay a couple extra days.” 

Her smiled twisted. “Just be careful, we have a curfew after nine.” 

“Oh, no,” Stiles said, sitting upright and arranging his features in a mask of polite concern. “Why is that?” 

“We’ve had some trouble lately, that’s all. I’ll get these orders in for you, okay?” She left. 

Stiles propped his chin on his hand and stared accusingly at Derek. “Thanks for your help, there,  _ Derek.”  _

“Thanks for the warning,  _ Stiles.” _

“Anytime, boo,” Stiles winked. Derek scowled, ears flushing pink again. 

The waitress remained tight-lipped for the rest of the meal. Derek paid and then herded Stiles grumpily out of the restaurant. Stiles ignored the insistent nudging back towards the hotel and turned the opposite way, hands in his pockets. 

Derek’s reaction was a little insulting but not all that surprising. Stiles ignored the werewolf on his heels as he walked the town, reminding himself that Derek didn’t owe him anything. Whatever tension Stiles felt between them, everything that had kept that little kernel of hope alive inside him- it was all Stiles projecting his own feelings onto Derek. 

It was a hard pill to swallow. 

Now quietly miserable, Stiles tipped his head towards the intersection a few feet ahead. “I’m going to check this way,” he told Derek. “There’s a few empty houses worth checking. You check the other way-” he jerked his chin in the opposite direction- “and we’ll meet back here later.” 

Derek frowned at him in the fading light. “We’re not splitting up.” 

“Yes, we are, because I want this whole trip over with,” Stiles shot back. Derek’s mouth tightened but he made no move to follow when Stiles walked away.  

Stiles’s phone buzzed in his pocket as he circled the first house. He ignored it. He pressed his hand to the earth and reached out with his spark, sucking in a breath when the earth reached back. Ley lines, active and recently disturbed. 

Stiles followed the earth magic to a house across the street, keeping his gold-tinted eyes trained on the ground. The house was nondescript, a small two-story house with closed shutters and a boarded front door. Stiles circled around to the back, the ley lines pulsing urgently now, warning him. 

A hand clapped him on the shoulder. Stiles whirled, spark charged, and nearly blasted Derek in the face. “What the fuck, Derek,” he hissed, jerking out of the man’s grip. 

“I followed a scent here,” Derek said. “I hope you weren’t about to go inside without backup.” 

Stiles rolled his eyes. “Someone died here recently,” he explained shortly. “The earth is unhappy about it.” 

“That’s a yes, then.” Derek sighed and stepped around him to break the lock on the basement door. “Well?” He led the way into the dark basement, claws out and eyes burning beta-gold. 

Stiles stayed a few feet behind him, lighting the room with his spark. The dim glow only made the basement creepier, he thought uncomfortably. 

“Anything?” He asked lowly. 

Derek shook his head. “No,” he said softly. “I thought I heard a heartbeat, but-” He cut off when a shadow detached itself from the wall and lunged. Stiles shouted in warning, fear seizing his heart when fingers brushed Derek’s neck and he immediately collapsed. 

Stiles didn’t hesitate- he sent his spark through Darcy’s rune inked on his arm and blasted the djinn with all the force of his magic. The djinn fell to the ground, twitching. 

“Derek,” Stiles said, stumbling over to him. “Derek, hey-” 

He whirled at a noise, saw a second djinn reaching for him with hatred in its face only a split second before the hand wrapped around his throat. 

Stiles blacked out. 

~*~ 

He wasn’t  _ awake, _ Stiles could tell that much. It was more like he was lucid dreaming, he decided. Not awake, but aware. 

Aware of the flashes through his head, brief insights to worlds and lives where things were different. Different, but real. These worlds where he existed, had odd, deja-vu like recollections, all overshadowing the real memories in his mind. 

_ Derek, mistrustful as ever, only this time directed at Stiles.  _

Stiles sucked in a breath at the suspicion, the lack of recognition on Derek’s face, and the world shifted again. 

_ A universe where Stiles’s powers never broke free, or they never existed in the first place. Where he had nothing to offer the pack but his heart and soul- both of which he gave freely.  _

A world like this one but not, where he would give his life for the pack and they for him. Trust forged through necessity and near-death experiences, not through love and friendship. 

_ Derek pressing him gently against a wall, the air between them hot. Panting into his mouth, overwhelmed by the warmth of him.  _

Shocked but not, because this was normal, familiar, they’d done this before- right? Hadn’t they? His mind fogged again. 

_ A universe where they were both so boringly human, as friends or students or teachers or no one at all, really. _

Flashes, so fast he lost track, of all the lives they could have had. It sucked him in, dizzying and irresistible, because it was everything he’d ever wanted. 

_ A universe with no Darcy, no Allison, no Naomi, none of the beautiful, courageous women in his life. His friends scattered or dead, no comforting touches or the unwavering faith of his found family.  _

A nightmare, one he had frequently, but Derek was there, too, at his side no matter what. Because Fate herself had shown the way for them, had brought them together. Stiles lost himself to the possibilities, all the universes where things were different but not, Derek the only constant. 

_ “I love you,” Derek told him, eyes warm and bright.  _

And Stiles knew this wasn’t real. 

The shock was like a kick to the face. Words he’d never expected to hear, spoken with all the truth that Stiles himself felt. Words he never would hear, because that’s not how Derek felt. 

“No,” Stiles said, too loud in the horrible quiet of his mind. His spark surged underneath his skin in response. 

Stiles felt a hand on his neck, fingers pressing tightly. He opened his eyes, saw the shock reflected in the djinn’s eyes, and simply stopped holding his spark at bay. 

The room exploded into light. 

Stiles blinked away the bright spots in his vision and found the djinn crumpled lifelessly across the room. He crawled over to Derek, weak and shivering, barely noticing the twitching fingers of the first dying djinn. 

“Derek,” Stiles rasped. “Derek, wake up.” Derek didn’t move.  _ “Derek.”  _ His voice cracked. Stiles took a shuddering breath and pressed his hands to Derek’s cheeks. 

He reached out with his spark, hoping to sever whatever magic the djinn had left in the werewolf, and gasped when instead his vision blacked out again. 

Stiles found himself standing beside Derek. The werewolf seemed unaware of him, staring intently at the scenes flashing by. 

_ Stiles- no, Derek- saw a world where Kate Argent seduced fifteen year old Derek just like she had in this universe, only this time she succeeded.  _

Stiles felt distantly nauseous- how could he not have  _ known? _

_ Stiles cooing at a baby, wiggling long fingers for the fascinated infant while Derek looked on with hearts in his eyes.  _

Surprise had his head rearing back like he’d been slapped. 

_ A universe where Derek was the Alpha, but,  _ oh, _ he was so alone, his family dead, a straggled group of reluctant teenagers the only pack he had left. A world where his family died and Peter came back a monster. _

Derek, unmoving beside him, eyes blank. 

_ Stiles humming off-key in a bright kitchen with a bare chest and tousled hair, cooking eggs on the stove. Hickeys marking the long, graceful line of his neck, dark bruises where Derek’s mouth had been.  _

And,  _ oh, _ how he ached for it to be real. 

But it wasn’t, Stiles reminded himself. His spark bumped against his own conscious, reminding him not to get sucked in again. He turned to the Derek beside him, the ‘wolf never registering the changes flashing by in front of him. 

“Derek.” 

Nothing. 

“Derek. You have to wake up.” He cleared his throat. “Derek.” 

Finally, finally, Derek tilted his shoulders slightly towards Stiles. Awareness. Stiles could work with that. “Derek. We can’t… you can’t stay here.” He couldn’t bear to look at the domestic scene still playing out in Derek’s vision. No matter how much he wanted to stay, too. 

“You wanna know why it’s not worth staying?” Stiles asked, eyes wet. “Because it’s not  _ real _ , Derek.  _ None _ of this is real, none of this is who we actually are.” 

“It could be,” Derek rasped, unable to tear his eyes from their clones’ adoring gazes, the soft touches between them. 

“Could it?” Stiles pressed his lips together, fought against the building tears. “I’m not sure I believe that anymore.” 

Derek flinched. “Don’t say that. Stiles.” 

“I’ve been here, Derek. For  _ years, _ waiting on you.” Well. There goes the last of his dignity. 

“Waiting on  _ me?” _ Derek finally looked away from the scene playing out before them. 

“Yes, waiting on you,” Stiles snapped. “For a single sign that you felt the same way. I got nothing.” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.” 

“Why doesn’t it matter?” Derek asked, angry now. “Maybe I’ve been waiting on  _ you. _ Did you ever think about that?” 

Stiles stared at him, stunned. “No.” 

“No? No what?” Derek asked, eyes flashing. 

“You don’t feel that way about me. This-” Stiles waved a hand at the vision- “this is not real. It’s…” 

“It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted,” Derek rasped. “You, Stiles.” 

Stiles brushed impatiently at his tears. “Then why…” 

Derek looked away. “I… You were so young,” he said. “Too young. And I...” 

“You what?” 

“I almost got my entire family killed,” Derek shouted, whirling around. “I told a hunter about us, I believed that she loved me, I believed everything she told me!” 

“Derek, you were…” Stiles thought back, feeling sick. “God. You were only fifteen, Derek. She was nearly  _ thirty.” _

“I should have known.” Derek turned away, running his fingers through his hair in frustration. 

“Kate Argent was a monster,” Stiles said, shoving at Derek’s shoulder until he turned back around. “The only thing you’re guilty of is believing you had any responsibility for her actions. Kate would have tried one way or another, Derek, she just chose to be a sick, twisted bitch to top it all off.” 

Derek said nothing. Stiles shook his head. “And now… what, you think you don’t deserve to be happy? That’s bullshit, Derek. You wanna know why?” 

Derek eyed him. Stiles took a deep breath and opened the part of himself that he’d locked away years ago, left to gather dust in a forgotten corner of his heart. 

“Because I still love you.” He stepped closer to Derek. “That hasn’t changed for almost seven years. And it’s not going to change now, no matter how much you tell yourself that you aren’t worth it.” 

Derek stared at him, eyes wide and mouth parted in surprise. “Stiles.” He stepped forward. 

Stiles shook his head. “Don’t. Not here.” Not in this maze, not while Derek was still wrapped up in the djinn’s magic. “You can tell me back in reality.” 

Stiles extended his hand and smiled tremulously at Derek. Derek wrapped his hand around the spark’s, eyes locked on Stiles as everything burned gold and bright around them. 

They came to in the dingy basement, Stiles’s hands still pressed to Derek’s face as the werewolf’s eyes fluttered open. Derek’s hands came up to wrap around Stiles’s wrists, holding him still as he sat upright. 

Stiles swallowed hard. “What I said back there, you don’t have to-” 

“Shut up, Stiles.” Derek touched his forehead to Stiles’s. “I love you,” he murmured. Stiles closed his eyes. 

Derek traced his thumb along Stiles’s cheekbone, watching him with soft eyes. “I’m sorry I never told you.” 

“Me too,” Stiles whispered back. His eyes dropped to Derek’s mouth. Derek pressed his thumb to Stiles’s bottom lip, eyes going half-lidded. 

Stiles decided he didn’t give a fuck about the creepy basement, or the dead djinn across the room. He climbed into Derek’s lap and kissed the fuck out of him- to hell with all the rest. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Stiles’s spark made him conscious of the changes in each universe- Derek was not aware of the changes, just repeatedly re-immersed in each one like he’d been there forever. 
> 
> In case it wasn’t clear, the first djinn was still dying while Stiles tried to wake Derek. That’s why Derek stayed trapped inside the dreamverse in his head. And instead of thinking it through, Stiles ran headfirst into more trouble to save Derek. Typical.


End file.
